Communication Preferences

eBay lets you decide how and when you'd like to receive notifications and alerts. You can receive notifications in your email using your email account. You can also receive alerts by instant messenger.

The alerts and emails you can receive include the following:

Status of items you’re bidding on, watching, or selling

Feedback reminder emails or removal alerts

Promotions and events

User Agreement or Privacy Policy changes

To change your communication preferences, sign in to eBay, go to the My eBay page, and click Preferences. You can also select whether to receive emails in HTML or text-only format.

SMS alerts

SMS stands for "short message services". You can subscribe to have SMS alerts sent to your mobile phone to notify you when an auction ends or you’ve been outbid. You will also be able to bid again from your alert.

Note: To subscribe to SMS alerts, you need a mobile phone service that has short message service (SMS) capabilities. Your service provider should be able to help you with this information.

Instant Messenger alerts

You can subscribe to have message alerts sent to your instant messenger window to notify you when an auction ends or you’ve been outbid. If you subscribe to instant messenger alerts, your messenger window will open and you will see the alert.

Note: To subscribe to instant messenger alerts, you need an account with an instant messenger provider, such as Yahoo or MSN. This account needs to exist before you subscribe for instant messenger alerts.

Contact Customer Service

If you would like to ask a question on another subject, please use the Contact Us page.